Between The Crystals

Ch 30 Upheaval

I swiftly returned to the crystal and ported back home, ignoring the tiredness that emerged.

Grant was at the porter's circle with Merryl and Calum, and I sat down next to him.

"No shards, but look what I found in an old cave." I handed him the three magazines.

Merryl leaned over to look as Grant took the aged paper. He frowned at the front page but opened it and leafed through it. His face reflected some of the same confusion I felt.

"Do you think it's real?" I asked. "Would any of the patriarchs know?" There wasn't much the patriarchs didn't know, at least not about our history or past traditions.

He remained silent as he skimmed each page, pausing occasionally to read something more in-depth. He met my gaze.

"It looks real enough to me. But I suspect most of the older folks would want to keep it quiet."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What? Why?"

He met my gaze. "People are already panicking and in despair over our lack of food reserves. Can you imagine how they might react if we tell them their history was fake and that past human actions destroyed the world?"

His words made me pause as it summarized what I read in a fashion I hadn't quite processed yet. Wait— "What do you mean destroyed the world?" Hints had been there, but he sounded way too certain.

His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth, then closed it. Merryl and Calum gave him a confused look.

"Grant?" I asked as my confusion deepened.

After looking around to make sure no one else was nearby, he sighed heavily. "These aren't the first magazines people have found. Decades ago, when I was young, someone in a different village found a notebook in an old army base. It was quite clear that humankind's greatest weapons destroyed huge areas indiscriminately and left it too poisoned to live there."

I sat up straighter. I hadn't heard about this.

"Humans fought against one another with these weapons. Our distant ancestors were in the middle of an all-out war when the aliens arrived." Grant's eyes were distant.

"But—I thought we were fighting the aliens? Is that the same war?"

He shrugged. "The book didn't say."

I was stunned. "Why weren't we told about this?"

"Because it divided that village beyond the point of reconciliation with no benefit to anyone," he said wearily. "Fights broke out when some believed and others didn't. A few fell into listless despair. Some wanted to try and reconcile with the Saursunes, which led to a lot of fighting among the villagers. The village completely split, and everyone scattered among the other villages. None remained there."

Merryl tilted her head. "I never heard of this..."

"It was before you were born. The event had such a huge impact that most villages decided not to tell the younger generations about it. The only reason I know about it is because I came from that village."

My mind skipped ahead. "And those who believed, their stories were dismissed as tall tales, kind of like how everyone ignores Old Fred?"

When Grant nodded, my head spun. Saursunes hadn't destroyed our paradise. We did. And most dismissed the truth because we didn't want to believe it.

Had humans attacked the aliens when they showed up? If my ancestors had attacked their own bloodkin, it was very possible. The aliens would have fought back, then likely decided to rid the planet of the pests who had poisoned the land, only for us to keep appearing and raiding their fields and barns like a bunch of rats.